[Avionics Today 12-30-2015] While passengers in Germany will increase at an annual rate of 3.3 percent, experts are not anticipating a considerable increase in departures from German airports, according to the latest aviation report by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
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| Frankfurt airport, Germany. Photo: DLR |
Researchers anticipate the number of passengers will rise from to 105 million in 2014 to 175 million in 2030, but aircraft departures will remain relatively steady as aircraft design continues to evolve.
“Larger aircraft will be used, leading to a relatively small increase in the number of takeoffs,” said Peter Berster from the DLR Institute of Air Transport and Airport Research in Cologne, Germany. A total of more than 1 million takeoffs per year are forecast for 2030. This represents an increase of 130,000 departures — and an annual growth of just one percent compared to 2014.
The increase in airfreight will be particularly noticeable, however. “We expect the amount of loaded cargo to rise from 2.3 million tons in 2014 to 7.3 million tons in 2030,” said Berster. Researchers believe that the reason for this is primarily the long-term positive development of the global economy.